Born Wild

This film is pretty cool. I like Daniel Wu (Purple Storm) and in this film he plays Tide. Tide finds out that his faternal twin brother has died and this starts him on a quest to find out the circumstances of his death and also who he was. He hadn't even seen his brother for 8 years prior to his death which occured on their birthday.

The story unfolds in a very non-linear fashion and the only way to really tell when you are in the story is to see which characters are hanging out with each other. I don't want to go into the plot too much, but this movie has something for pretty much everybody I think. There's underground boxing and a love story and a bit of drama and a dash of comedy (not much) and a little bit of gangster business. The film is a cross between My Schoolmate The Barbarian and Fight Club (and Kickboxer with Jean Claude Van Damme kinda). The film lost me a little bit at the end, but I can't fault it for 5 minutes of disaster when the rest was so good. Don't read the back of the DVD case if you want to watch it spoiler free.

The acting was pretty good. Daniel Wu looks well groomed and fit (he's been working out), his brother Tan is played by Louis Koo and Jo Koo plays Tan's girlfriend (hope they aren't related in real life). Patrick Tam plays the friend of all of them. They're all great in this.

The action is good. The action in this is boxing... not boxing in a ring though - this is boxing in parking lots and warehouses. Louis Koo does alot of a** kicking in this. Don't be expecting any kung-fu or gun-fu. There's a few gunshots, but not as an action sequence.

The cinematography is great. The camerawork really swept me into the story. I know this sounds redundant, but it was very cinematic - like if the camera was a paintbrush, this would be big bold strokes. It was a pleasure to watch. Much of this film was dark though and talking a bit about the DVD, the colors were a little oversaturated and in some really dark scenes, the blackest black looked red.

Overall, I'd give this one an 8/10. Thumbs up from me. It's certainly worth buying I think.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age